Utopianism in eighteenth-century Ireland / Deirdre Ní Chuanacháin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chuanacháin, Deirdre Ní.

Contributor:

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politics and culture.

History.

Utopias.

Ireland--Politics and government--18th century.

Ireland.

Politics and government.

Utopias--Ireland--History--18th century.

Utopias in literature.

Politics and culture--Ireland--History--18th century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 260 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Other Title:

Utopianism in 18th-century Ireland

Place of Publication:

Cork, Ireland : Cork University Press, 2016.

Summary:

The Utopian propensity, the impulse to a better world, is found throughout human culture. However, its expression is necessarily historically and culturally variable. Utopianism in Ireland has an extensive and varied prehistory to be found in travellers' tales, the oral tradition of the Celtic Otherworld and in the early vision poems which reached apotheosis in the political aisling of the eighteenth century. Moreover, in the political realm, the vision of a nation, lost or not yet won, resonates in speeches, songs and manifestos. The emergent, utopianism of the eighteenth century is predicated on both memory and reflections of the past, as well as on visions for the future. These memories and reflections have been imagined and re-imagined in many different cultural forms, both in texts and in social practice. They move from dialogue to satire, from aisling to polemic, from visions of a golden age, to an imagined Eden far away, to realistic discourses of improvement, self-reliance and patriotism. This book explores the varieties of utopianism in eighteenth-century Ireland. Based on what is recoverable and what has been recovered to date, it reveals that a distinct utopianism emerged in the early decades of the eighteenth century based on the improving visions of the Dublin Society, the imperative to improve, the interface between the languages, Irish and English, between the cultures of the Catholic and Protestant communities, and between colonial and anti-colonial writings. Utopianism, beyond all the definitional difficulties, is basically a process, one that is continually being reworked. The philosophy of Irish utopianism of the eighteenth century grew steadily during the subsequent centuries and contributed to the formation of an identifiable modern society in Ireland. This book is the first full-length study of utopianism in eighteenth-century Ireland. It makes an original contribution hi identifying a clear Utopian propensity in eighteenth-century Ireland in the discourses of improvement and in the textual studies of lunar voyage narratives, and an extensive analysis of Samuel Maddens 'Memoirs of the Twentieth Century". It is a topical read in the area of Historical. Irish, Political, Utopian and Cultural Studies. It is a timely contribution to the growing area of Utopian studies. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction: The Utopian Propensity 1

2 Utopian Geographies 24

3 Improving Visions: The Early Philosophical Societies and the Dublin Society 49

4 George Berkeley's New World Utopia and the Pacific Utopia in the Writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone 70

5 To the Limits of the Lunar World': Extraterrestrial Voyages and Utopia 108

6 Dark Caverns: Samuel Maddens Futurism 154

7 Conclusion: Some Vague Utopia 192.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-251) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781782051688

1782051686

OCLC:

910535541

Publisher Number:

99966990217